Black Swallowtail

The black swallowtail butterfly is a large butterfly found in central and eastern United States in open fields or prairies.

The black swallowtail is almost all black. It has yellow on the edges of its wings and the females have blue on their hind wings. You can find its brightly colored yellow and black caterpillar eating plants such as parsley, carrots, celery and dill.

It likes to consume sweet nectar from prairie flowers such as butterfly milkweed and thistles. When the butterfly lands on the flowers to get to the nectar, it gets some pollen on its body. When it flies to another flower it gets the pollen on that flower, pollinating the flower. This is how butterflies pollinate flowers.

Even though butterflies do pollinate flowers, they are not as effective as bees.